So let's talk about Google and how it works, as a lot of people forget that Google is a robot which crawls the internet and applies a set of algorithms to rank data in it's search engine. Google itself is not a person or a set of people it is a robot that crawls the internet. The people that are going to be visiting your site are human and thus what appeals to Google might not appeal to your users. Google Inc has done a fantastic job in trying to align what a person searches for and what what the Google Bot shows in the Google index. The Google algorithm which SEO consultants spend most of their time trying to crack determines how sites will rank in their search engine by determining over 200 factors.

Factors Google Consider

Google breaks factors in assessing where you site should appear in the search engine results page (SERP) by addressing on page (internal) and off page (external) factors surrounding your website. While these are both important there are hundreds of other articles available on the internet about these topics. When you are first getting into Search Engine Optimization and Web Development I find it is a lot more important to address web design, usability and functionality of your web site from a user and search engine friendliness perspective.

When you are creating content for your website it is very important that you make it relevant to what people are searching for. Grouping content into areas of your website allow you to pick up search engine traffic for many searches related to your main topics. In is important to consider your website will likely grow in size in the coming months and years and you will likely be adding more content and features. This is one of the most overlooked features that isn't taken into account in a web design.

The layout of your directories and the internal linking structure of your site will also play an increasingly important role in your sites success as it grows. Google factors into account the internal linking structure of your site when determining search results so defining your internet linking structure around a few main keywords is an important consideration.

Building Links to Your Site

The easiest way to quickly increase your search engine rankings is to text inbound links to your site. Google ranks sites based on the amount of relevant links that point to a site. It's a bit like high school all over again, if you site is in the popular and "cool" website network you will be ranked higher in the SERP's and if you are in a bad website link network you will have trouble getting indexed and crawled by Google.

There are many ways to get links to your website from posting on a site link this one, to exchanging links with websites related to your own, using social media sites, putting content on other sites and blogs and running an affiliate program. There are many more ways to do this and this is really just scratch the surface of the possibilities.

The key with links is to make sure that the website linking to you is a creditable source and not engaging in any spamming or unethical business practices that are like to see it and those associated with it banned from the search engines. An example of this was a company I worked with that had a blog and it didn't have spam protect and was overrun with spam comments. By getting rid of the comments and asking Google to reindex the blog they were able to reinstate their traffic.

This also brings up the point that you should always keep an eye on what you are being indexed for in Google. In one case a well know SEO company was appearing as number one for "Search Engine Spam" because they haven't kept an eye on the negative keyword matching of their content. Google now has a tool called Google Alert that you can use to have them alert you when something happens that may negatively affect your business.

Lastly do not just focus on optimizing for Google, focus on Ask.com, Live.com & Yahoo as well because they might generate high converting traffic for you. Although Google is the powerhouse of search Yahoo is still the most trafficked site on the internet and Windows Live is aggressively expanding it's reach into the search market and is the fourth most trafficked site currently. If you want to expand your presence on the web then then learning search engine optimization is your best bet unless you can afford to hire a savvy SEO consultant.

Google Alerts are useful for discovering when you or your organization's name is mentioned on the Internet; however, I have noticed a quirk with the software.

As a PR volunteer for the Cameron Siemers Foundation for Hope, I set up a Google Alert for "Cameron Siemers." However, I continue to receive old stories. Today, I received an alert for his speech at the Ribbon of Hope Awards -- from 2005!

I continue to receive articles with his name from years gone by. Has anyone else encountered this issue? Please share.

Update: In addition, a service you might like to explore is StartPR. For a review of its features, see Kaye Sweetser's post here. Another monitoring service is Tweetscan, which monitors your search terms on twitter.

Well you can't stop what people want to say or comment about you, but it is possible to 'spy' or know what people is talking behind your back.

Welcome to the world of 'Google Alerts', not a new service, nor a spy service either, but if you know how to make use of its feature, it can turn out to be a good, free, spy service for you.

Google Alert, which the name implies, alerts you about anything that you want to be alerted. For example if you want to be alerted about news on Britney Spears, simply type the name in the alert box, and every single entry of Britney Spears on the internet will be sent to your email.

Got the idea? To 'spy' for you, simply type in your name, or nickname that you usually use or be called upon. For example in my case, I want to be alerted on 'goch' and 'goch1988'. I'll be alerted for the latest entry on these two words. So anytime someone put in their blog: goch sux! he's a total ...etc etc.., I'll be alerted! haha (okay don't try that, lol)

Here's some example:

This morning, I'm being alerted on my own blog entry, since my blog is registered under my nickname.

Well not all the time we get what we want to know, but it's kinda interesting and worth a try.

And not all the time we get bad entries, some can be good too (just got this few mins ago):

(latest blog entry by wen sher! haha, we went movie the other day at MV)

Hope it helps :) And happy trying...

]]> http://janmaterne.wordpress.com/?p=53 Fri, 20 Jun 2008 10:13:29 +0000 janmaterne http://janmaterne.it.wordpress.com/2008/06/20/we-are-famous/ Very funny. I created a Google Alert with some criterias so that I would get a message if there is something new about my ensemble Niederrhein Brass. I was very surprised that we were refered by Wikipedia.

En todos los foros de las telenovelas que están al aire en este en Telemundo hay un común denominador hay felicidad y tristeza.  El motivo es porque están por terminar varias de las telenovelas al aire.

Pecados Ajenos sale del aire el viernes 13 de junio. La Traicon está en sus últimas semanas. Murió “Michelle” a manos del terrible “Alcides” y desapareció la hija de” Soledad” .  La telenovela Victoria está en su etapa culminante. ¿”Victoria” se quedara con Jerónimo? O le dará una oportunidad a su ex “Enrique”.  En Pecados Ajenos “Ágata” por fin está en la cárcel. ¿Sera este su fin? ¿Podrán ser felices “Natalia” y “Adrian” para siempre?

Desgraciadamente o afortunadamente las telenovelas no son como las “soap operas” norteamericanas. Las telenovelas tal como explica la experta en telenovelas la Dra. Carolina Acosta- Alzuru “Las telenovelas tienen un número finito de capítulos. Por lo tanto, el público espera una conclusión definitiva para la historia que cuenta. La soap opera está diseñada para no tener fin.”

¿Les gustan los finales “diferentes” de telenovela  o los clásicos finales de telenovela que terminan en boda? A mí me gusta una combinación de los dos. El final de Betty la fea fue bello y el final El Clon fue muy especial de los pocos que he grabado.

¿Entonces como nos curamos la nostalgia post final de telenovela los fans de ellas? Esto me ha servido a mí a través de los años.

Ver cualquier entrevista, detrás de cámaras, o especial en la que tenga que ver con mi telenovela o artista favorito.

Comparar revistas o posters alusivos a ciertas telenovelas o actores. Compren el DVD oficial de la telenovela.

Ahora gracias al internet se incrementan las posibilidades.

Hay blogs dedicados a ciertas telenovelas, actores, o al mundo de telenovelas en general.

Telemundo no cierra los foros oficiales de sus telenovelas solo los quita de la página principal. Además, deja colgados los capítulos de sus telenovelas.

Escriban un “fanfic” o texto libre dedicado a su telenovela favorita.

Hagan un collage con fotos, dibujos, o video de su telenovela o actor favorito.

Manténganse en contacto con amigos de los foros de fans (tomando las debidas precauciones en internet por supuesto).

Escriban un blog dedicado a su telenovela o telenovelas favoritas y háganme la competencia J

Hagan un “Google Alert” de su telenovela o actor favorito. Así saben cómo le va a dicha telenovela o actor en un futuro. Lo pueden “seguir “en el ciberespacio.

Lean mucho sobre todo no solamente sobre las telenovelas.  Se mantienen ocupados y pueden encontrar las similitudes entre la literatura y las telenovelas.

Hagan una “fiestecita” virtual o en la vida real el día de el final de su telenovela favorita. Inviten a familia y amigos. Muchas personas son fans de telenovela de “closet”.  Los cuales aseguran “solo le están cambiado al canal” y “no les gustan las telenovelas pero bien que gritan o lloran si se muerte su personaje favorito.  Preparen los pañuelos desechables y la botana pa ’llorar a gusto. 

Suscríbanse a foros oficiales y no oficiales de fans de sus actores favoritos. Muchas veces organizan convivios con los artistas o firmas de autógrafos.

Busquen en Youtube.

Háganse fans de los libretistas de telenovela. Como por ejemplo, Caridad Bravo  Adams autora de El Juramento o Fernando Gaitán autor de Betty la fea. Ellos son los responsables de la verdadera magia de las telenovelas.

Formen su propio club de fans de su telenovela o artista favorito. Eso si les advierto es mucho trabajo.

Sobre todo aprendan de las ensenas de vida de las telenovelas En mi opinión, es lo mas importante.

¿Ustedes que opinan? ¿Cómo combaten la depresión post final de telenovela?

Muerte de Michelle “La Traición”

Victoria le da su “libertad” a Jerónimo “Victoria”

Avance del final de “Pecados Ajenos”

After our trip to Molly's Cupcakes last week, Tony and I both blogged about it.  Well, yesterday Tony was listening to Ron and Fez and Ron was talking about the Ron Bennington "I have my own cupcake" cupcake (which is of course what we ate when we were there).  He went on to say through the magic of Google alerts he knows when he is talked about on the Internet and that most of this talk revolves around his cupcake.  He went on to say that just in the last few days "two blogs" had talked about his cupcake!  Now it might be a coincidence, but I have to assume he was refering to Tony and me.  I guess we'll never know, but it is sort of exciting none the less.

But I don't just plug these places for the fame and I certainly don't do it for the money (since there isn't any).  I only plug things that I really like and think other people should check out and that they would enjoy.  I would never plug anything that I didn't like myself, unless there is money involved.  Then I would proudly endorse anything on God's green Earth!  That is to say, if it were something I didn't like and then someone paid me to like it, I would start liking it a lot more.  (Hint, hint advertisers!  J/k I don't think I have the kind of readership it would take for something like that)

So anyway, if you happen to be in Chicago, you should check out Molly's Cupcakes sometime.  If you don't want to listen to my endorsements, skip anthing with the "plug" tag, I won't be offended.

We have been reading Vince Antonucci's book "I Became a Christian and All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt, as a church.  I have loved this book and working for a christian retailer I have had the pleasure of putting it in the hands of a lot of people.

Vince is incredibly funny, and has some great insight.  And he really has a heart to see people connect with God in a fresh new way.  One that lasts...

Anyway Vince received a "Google alert" (as I am sure he will with this post and this one) Then decided to mention my blog on his.  As a result my blog has received the most hits ever for a single day. 

I started this blog back in January and so far these have been the most visited posts, in no particular order.

New Music

Where is the "Rev." Al Sharpton?

Frustrating Christians and Frustrating Christians Revisited

and sadly Comfort for those that can't sleep has been the most visited of my posts.

Honorable mentions go to This Friday at 6:30 am, why I will be smiling all day on Thursday, and I Love my Wife

So Thank you Vince for sending some traffic my way.  As a result I will continue to sell your book :-)

Billy

• Brand = Reputation
• Image = Reputation
• Survival = Reputation

In the sink or swim world we live in, reputation is everything.  Sure, you can get by for a little while skating around like an elephant on an April ice sheet, but sooner or later you'll crash through into the hypothermia-inducing water (i.e. have to go out of business).  If not go out of business, you'll have to run and hide.  Or change your name and move to a non-extradition country with lax laws regarding entry.

In order to get repeat business--or even stay in business at all--you'll have to manage your reputation.  And with a bad experience spreading on the Internet faster than a virus in a 90 minute horror movie, you have to regularly stay on top of what's being said about you--and who's saying it.

Nobody has the luxury of enough time to constantly monitor their mentions online by going from site to site haphazardly.  That's why you can setup a Google Alert for your name, company, product, or anything.  Google with its minions spiders all over the 'net will let you know when your alert word is mentioned.

Your survival in business and your professional survival is all about your reputation.  As Paul points out, many people lose touch with what a "brand" is.  What people think of when they hear, "Mac", "F150", or "Coach purse" is reputation.  I've never owned a Mac, F150, or a Coach purse, but because of their reputation I have an opinion of those brands.

• Do you monitor your brands, products, or person online?
• What products/brands do you want based on reputation only?
• What products/brands do you want nothing to do with based on reputation only?

Effettivamente il servizio si prestava per essere sfruttato dagli spammer, perché la stessa email di conferma per l'attivazione dell'agente di ricerca, conteneva il testo da ricercare.
Recentemente hanno modificato il servizio e adesso i termini di ricerca vengono "troncati" e con loro un eventuale messaggio di spam.

GateHouse - I should probably lead here with the bad news: We're all going to die.

I know it seems like I'm saying that an awful lot these days. The thing is, I have a Google alert on the phrase "We're All Going To Die," and the wretched thing goes off several hundred times a day. It went off when they found the pharmaceuticals in the drinking water, it went off when the anthrax was being mailed everywhere, it went off when the White Sox won the World Series, it went off on Election Day 2004, and it still goes off every time someone older than 11 years old says "BFF."

But at the risk of seeming redundant -- and, it should be noted, wrong, since if you're reading this there's a better-than-average chance you are not dead -- this time we really, really are going to all die. Really. No, really. I mean it. Stop looking at me like that. Start, I don't know, flailing your arms and rioting in the streets or something.

The danger this week comes from Space, which, as you might recall, has been trying to kill us for years. First, Space sent us the asteroid that killed all the dinosaurs, which was a pretty good shot, though it tragically left intact the DNA that would eventually be used to form Nancy Grace. Then it sent us harmful sunrays, then it ate our ozone layer, then it sent us Nicole Richie, and now it's sending us a monster blast of high-energy gamma rays. As any science fiction fan can tell you, these will either toast the entire planet whole like a Twinkie in a microwave or turn us all into Hulks. Frankly, given the choice, I'm pulling for the former.

Researchers at the University of Sydney in Australia report that the dangerous gamma rays are roaring at us right now from an otherwise nondescript area of the constellation Sagittarius. Loosely translated from the Latin, Sagittarius means, "the one that's going to fry you with the searing death gamma rays." We should have probably seen it coming.

A star in the constellation called Wolf-Rayet is believed to be very near what the Web site Cosmos Online calls a "cataclysmic supernova explosion." It sounds bad, but you know how Cosmos Online likes to totally exaggerate.

"When it finally explodes as a supernova, it could emit an intense beam of gamma rays coming our way," Peter Tuthill told the Web site; Tuthill is the lead researcher of the team that report their findings in the current Astrophysical Journal (it's the one with Lebron James on the cover).

Now, if this rings a bell to any of you, congratulations, and thanks for stepping out of Second Life long enough to read this column. A high-energy laser blast coming at a defenseless verdant planet from a sinister orb in the far reaches of the universe? Researchers in Sydney haven't found a cataclysmic supernova explosion -- they've found the Death Star. This Wolf-Rayet is apparently the ultimate power in the universe. I suggest we use it.

But the really good news about our collective forthcoming extinction is 1. Everyone can stop whining about global warming, and 2. We have some time to plan for it. The danger from Wolf-Rayet, thankfully, is not terribly imminent, and indeed we probably have a good few hundreds of thousands of years to think of a solution, although you know how things go when the Democrats control Congress. This will give us plenty of time to enjoy our last few good years here on planet Earth. I suggest we start enjoying them now, by immediately getting rid of Nancy Grace.

Go to www.google.com/alerts and put in your main key words of the topic of your book, so that you will get a message each day with any news stories on the topic of your book.

My example for the day... I just scanned through my alert for "chronic illness" (I have about 15 alerts) and one of the news stories from a newspaper in Wayland, MA was, "Course on 'Being a Friend to Someone Affected by Cancer'" I clicked and it discusses an entire class a high school had on how teenagers learned how to encourage, relate, talk to, etc. someone with a chronic illness or cancer. Bingo!

As the founder of National Invisible Chronic Illness Awareness Week and author of Beyond Casseroles: 505 Ways to Encourage a Chronically Ill Friend, I couldn't find a more appropriate person to send off some information to. I couldn't track down addresses for the 3 people who actually led the course, the but Dean of Students, who was quoted was a perfect source. The article quoted him as saying, "The ‘Being a Friend’ class was a wonderful program for the students of Wayland High School because it addressed important issues that many Wayland students have to face during their school years and throughout their lifetime."

I looked up the school address, wrote him a letter commending him for having such a course and what a difference it would make in these student's lives for the rest of their life. I also told him about II Week and Beyond Casseroles and I included 3 copies of the Beyond Casseroles books for the course leaders.

I included II Week brochures, II Week stickers, Beyond Casseroles bookmarks (that have 13 ways to encourage a chronically ill friend). I also added 3 white silicone bracelets for Invisible Illness Week, offering to send more if they'd be interested in acknowledging the week in September or in case they had the class again.

All from one little Google Alert. Trust me, I would not have been reading a newspaper from Framingham, MA today!

What's in your email today that is the perfect match for your book?

------------------------------

Lisa and Joel Copen have a variety of experience in founding a nonprofit that receieves over 80,000 visitors per month, music and sound editing, web design, and book marketing and publishing. They look forward to your ideas to make the series of ebooks on book promotion a practical tool to help you sell more books!

I've been up for about an hour, and I've already added three new additions to my Google Reader feeds, namely SquirrelNet, MediaShift (thanks to a Feedhead post by Prof. Netzley who shared a great post on How Google & Wiki have changed our lives) and Louisgray.com, referred to by Mike. No wonder it's taking me longer and longer to check my feeds every day!

Anyway, on Louisgray, there's an interesting article about AssetBar, which looks like a competitor to Google Reader, with a social element built in. Basically while you can share feeds in Google Reader, you don't know what someone else might be thinking about it, other than the person liked it enough to share it. AssetBar changes that by allowing users to rate articles and comment on them as well. I haven't had the time to try it yet, but hopefully I will soon and see if the whole commenting thing turns up anything interesting.

She had an extremely popular daytime talk show for 11 seasons and has just produced the new documentary, “The Business Of Being Born.” Wednesday, RICKI LAKE will join me to talk about her incredible documentary that examines childbirth. I’ll ask her how it feels to have a film of her giving birth in a bathtub, in theaters across America, why she thinks a homebirth with a midwife might be safer than in a hospital and how her new single life is going.

Ricki Lake will be on the Ellen DeGeneres Show on Wednesday, December 19 if you're interested in watching it!  Click here to find out when the show airs in your area.

Now if only we could get OPRAH interested in these sorts of topics . . .